ETJ Blog

SEGMENT: INTRO

An early, early, early start. My friends and I. A beautiful spring day. The mountain. Smelly socks. An mp3 player/recorder. What connects them all? What connects them all?The English Teacher John Show of course, number 75.

[intro music]

Welcome everyone to the English Teacher John Show. I’m John Koons and I produce and host this English learning podcast right here in Matsumoto, Japan. In today’s short episode, you will join us at the top of Mt. Hachibuse, which is a small mountain close to Matsumoto. It’s 1,928 meters high, and recently, my friends and I hiked up to the top. It’s about a 2-1/2 to 3 hour hike and up at the top the view is spectacular, wonderful. You can see the full Northern range of the Japanese Alps, and you can also see snowy peaks in the Central and Southern Japanese Alps as well. On most days you can see Mt. Fuji. On our hiking day, we could just barely make out Fuji-san through the haze.

In today’s show, we talk about hiking gear in the first segment. You’ll hear my friends Charlie, Yasuko, Thomas and Sean. Sean is a couch surfer who we all just met. You can find out more about that at couchsurfing.org, and their slogan is “Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time.” After that, the second segment is a language segment. You’ll learn about the English to use when accepting apologies, or forgiving.

Alright … here we go!

[gong]

I apologize for some of the wind noise that you hear at the top of the mountain in our discussion. Even English Teacher John can’t stop the wind! So, sorry about that audio quality.

SEGMENT: DISCUSSION – Hiking Gear – What to bring

John Koons: Alright, a beautiful day on Mt. Hachibuse. A pretty good hike coming up? What do you think about that hike?

Amazing.
Amazing! I agree with that.

How was the hike for you Charlie?

It was really nice. A lot of nature, beautiful stream, some steep bits, some flat bits.

And the view from the top?

Out of this world. Fantastic. 360 degrees.

Okay, we have a beautiful day in May here on the top of Mt. Hachibuse and we’re talking about things to bring hiking. Who’s going to start us off. What do you need when you go hiking? Something to bring hiking.

A smile.

Yay!

Toothbrush. I saw somebody in this group brushing his teeth on the way.

Something to bring hiking?

You should bring a towel.

Like it.

Something good when you go hiking in the mountains or thae hills.

Peanuts.

Alright, let’s see. I’ll say “senbei” which are the crispy rice crackers, very popular in Japan. Bring senbei when you go hiking. Anything else?

A good pair of shoes or a good pair of flip-flops, or an extra pair of socks.

Do you need clothes when you go hiking, Charlie?

Nah. Not me anyway.

Something else to bring hiking?

Chocolate … with peanuts.

Sunglasses.

Camera.

Very nice.

Marshmallows.

Hat.

Some water.

Sunblock.

Alright, I put some of that on. I usually fry when I’m out here. Any time of the year, doesn’t matter. I’ll fry out in this sunshine-filled place we have here, Matsumoto, Japan. I hope the wind is not kicking up here into the mic too much. Anything else?

Energy.

Bring your energy. Comedy is okay by the way.

Bring your friends.

Isn’t that nice.

Trousers, except Charlie.

Except Charlie? He’s our naked hiker.

Bring your dog.

Hey, I like it! Okay. And our last round is, things to NOT bring when you go hiking. Things to NOT bring when you go hiking. Who wants to start us off?

Encyclopedia.

Horseshoes.

Especially the heavy ones.

Mp3 player.

[laughing]

I like that. That’s a good one.

Makeup.

Alright. Don’t need the makeup. I’ll ditch mine out of my pack.

Uncooked spaghetti.

Raw eggs.

Ice.

I was going to say Charlie, but that’s not very nice. [laughing]

Unicycle.

Fan. Electronic fan.

Ah, man. An axe.

We were talking about an axe. You need an axe to build your cabin — chop it, cut it.

Parachute.

Alright. Don’t bring your parachute when you go hiking. Alright, the last round: things to not bring when you go hiking.

A wig.

A wig. Okay.

Suitcase.

Alright. Anybody bring their suitcase. I forgot my wig. Have a look. You see.

Grumpy friends.

Don’t bring grumpy friends. Should we bring Thomas next time?

He’s not grumpy.

Things not to bring when you go hiking.

Roller skates.

Alright, everybody. Thank you very much. Thanks for being on the English Teacher John Show, special mountain edition.

Oh, another thing to bring, that you really should remember next time, is a kite.

Ooh, flying a kite off of Mt. Hachibuse. I’ve seen the remote-controlled gliders but I haven’t seen a kite up here.

That’d be cool. I’ve gotta get a big one.

Alright. Thanks you guys.

[music]

SEGMENT: LANGUAGE – Accepting an Apology, Forgiving

At some point, all of us will receive an apology. Someone will say to you:

I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean that.
I apologize.
Please forgive me.
I’m so sorry!
Please accept my apology.
Sorry for keeping you waiting.
I want to apologize for my behavior last night.
Sorry I’m late. (I hear that one sometimes from my students. But, that’s okay. I’m often late so often I have to say, “Sorry I’m late.”).

How do you respond to that in English? How do you accept an apology? Well, try these:

That’s okay.
No problem.
Ah, you really don’t have to apologize. It’s okay.
I forgive you.
Thank you. I accept your apology.
Don’t worry about it.
No worries.
No need to apologize, but thank you.

FORGIVENESS is an important concept when accepting an apology.
FORGIVENESS is:
– to decide not to continue being angry about something that someone has done or said, and not to allow your memory of it to influence your future relationship.

And, here are two well-known PROVERBS, WORDS OF WISDOM about apologizing and forgiving.
1. To err is human, to forgive divine
We all make mistakes, right, so “To err” or to make an error or mistake is human and well, it’s normal and common. But, to forgive someone is divine. It is really something special, something honorable and very gracious.

The second proverb is:
2. forgive and forget
Offer your sincere forgiveness and move on. Forget it. Hey, nobody’s perfect!

Laurence Sterne was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman, and, a long time ago in 1760, he wrote:
Only the brave know how to forgive. A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.

[gong]

SEGMENT: SIGNOFF

Thanks for listening everyone. Thanks to our music man, Martin Chenhall. Transcripts are on our blog, at english teacher john -dot- com, and our email address is p o d c a s t -at- english teacher john – dot – com.

I wasn’t able to find an exact source for this meaninful quote:

Forgiveness means bending without breaking,
being strong enough to withstand
the heavy weight of injury
but resilient enough to recover.
Be forgiving!

Okay, everybody. Let’s really try to forgive each other more quickly and more often. Mata ne.

Posted by English Teacher John on Friday, May 14th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Category: ETJ Show, Listening, Transcript. Follow responses to this entry: RSS 2.0 feed.